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Being Aerys by Xersin
 Books » A song of Ice and Fire Rated: T, English, Drama & Humor, Aerys T., Rhaella T., OC, Words: 167k+, Favs: 1k+, Follows: 1k+, Published: Jun 14, 2017 Updated: Sep 1, 2017282Chapter 28: 28
xXx
Bullshitting I am not, but there had been an honest to gods dead pool on the situation in the westerlands. Some lords and ladies had money on the Lannisters. Others on the Tarbecks and Reynes.
Needless to say, the odds were firmly stacked against the Lannisters and if I had known that there was a bet running around, I would have put a lot of money on the Lannisters winning. I know. A horrible thing to do, but I might as well use my out of context knowledge to get me some more monies.
I was a horrible person that occasionally tries to convince himself that he is a good person. I was still trying to work on that.
Not long after the people that were actually in the need to know part of the court had learned of the situation, the other people that thought they were important but not really all that important had come to learn of the critical existence failure of the Tarbecks and Reynes.
All in it's gruesome and grisly manner, especially for the unlucky sons of bitches that had been the Reynes.
Now in the twenty-first century, what Tywin did would be considered a full on war crime. I mean, I would be straight on the boat of condemnation. I mean, think of all the children that had found their lives washed away in those mines.
Here? In Westeros? The number of people that felt morally outraged at such an action could pretty much be counted with one hand. The rest? Well, this was nothing more than par the course for a rebellious vassal.
Tywin was a monster. And I was friends with this guy.
"Did Reynard, at the very least offer terms of surrender?" Egg asked, looking older than the last time I remembered him. Either he didn't age well, or this was difficult news for him to take since he had taken particular interest in how Tywin was raised as a page of the court. Remember that small list of people that would care? Yeah? Egg would be among their number.
We were in the small council chambers. Me, Duncan, Egg, Betha and Ser Joffrey. I couldn't particularly explain my reason for being here other than the fact that I currently had the wrong kind of lion underneath my care, but the rest I could.
Duncan was Hand of the King. Betha was queen and had helped look after Tywin as he grew into his role as a page of the court back when he had first arrived. And Ser Joffrey because he was the one who had come to learn of the situation in the westerlands before anyone else.
He was the master of whisperers for a reason.
Actually, I was rather interested in this as well. My knowledge on that part of Westeros history was iffy and I was curious. From what Ryam had said about this guy, he was apparently the smartest person in the entirety of the westerlands, let alone Westeros.
Then again, Ryam was a prideful little shit and I took everything he said with a wallop of salt.
Ser Joffrey ran through some papers before he answered the question of his king. "Lord Reynard offered terms."
The queen's dark eyes shifted from Egg to the knight, worry being replaced by interest. "I take it they weren't good terms then?"
"Reynard offered peace in return, Tywin send Kevan and Tygett Lannister as hostages to be fostered at Castamere."
If I was currently drinking something I would have probably spit it out. I mean, what? I thought this Reynard fellow was supposed to be smart. He was surrounded and he was the one offering terms that didn't even reflect the situation that he was in?
I know refuge in audacity is a thing and all, but really, what?
Duncan must have been as incredulous as me by the way he spoke. "I would hardly describe them as terms. Did they think so much of themselves? I may not agree of how Tywin handled the situation, but from everything that we come to learn of the Reynes, some may say they were let off far too easily."
"The Reynes, yes." Egg said, rising from the king's seat. "But Reynes weren't the only people in Castamere, Duncan. I should have been firmer or at the very least, removed Tytos from his position as Warden of the West and Lord Paramount of the westerlands. Ser Jason might have been better served in that role until Tywin came of an age." He paced to the window and looked out over the Blackwater Bay. "The terms, did Tywin reply with his own?"
Ser Joffrey shook his head. "Not to my knowledge, your grace. From what I understand, not long after he had read them, he already had his man begin work to reroute the river into Castamere."
Perhaps Egg's shoulders dropped ever so slightly, but I wasn't sure, but they did seem like the shoulders of a weary old man who happened to be tired of it all.
The queen rose up from her own seat and made her way to her husband. "Egg..." Betha spoke up softly, placing a hand on her husband's shoulder. "You did as much as you could. You might be king, but there's only so much that you can do in your power. Unfortunately, another situation has risen from this." She finished, her eyes shifting towards myself.
"Ryam." I said without prompt. I know what this was going to be about.
Betha nodded her head. "There are many a ways to put down a rebellious vassal or house. Some of the more merciful lords would have the lord of the house executed or sent to the wall. It seems Tywin is the other type of lord. The type that prefers to destroy house, both root and stem."
Duncan shook his head, voice in disbelief. "I always knew there was a certain darkness to him, but I didn't think to the extent that it is."
"I doubt anyone would have seen this coming."
Apart from me, because I knew this had been coming and I didn't stop it. Why? Because the butterflies that's why. All of my knowledge of the future was based on events that had come to pass.
Something I watched on TV once came to mind. An episode of from Doctor Who or something. The Doctor had tried to explain to one of his companions of why some things can be changed and why some things are simply 'time-locked' or some other bullshit to explain why this had to go this particular way it went.
And I happened to be using this very same excuse. Unfortunately, I didn't even know which events were 'time-locked' and which weren't. In other words, just to keep my knowledge of the future relevant to give me the edge that I need, despite the changes that I had already made, I, at the very least wanted to keep things marginally the same, or as the same to canon as possible.
In other words, I could have asked Tywin to take it easy on the Reynes, but who knows how that could have messed with the timeline? More than I have already done.
"I'll speak to Ryam." I eventually said. I didn't know how to breech the subject considering the stunt he had pulled when he had come to learn of what had happened to his family. "And I'll think of a way to handle Tywin."
That's what I said, but I had no idea how to handle Tywin. Why? Because Tywin had a serious ego-slash-pride problem. I doubt when he had decided to wipe out the Reynes (and no, that wasn't any sort of attempt at a pun), he had planned for any of them to survive.
No doubt that he was going to try and kill Ryam the first chance that he got. Even if Tywin didn't want to kill Ryam because of his own personal problems, my young squire seemed amicable to the idea of getting himself killed by in turn, wanting to kill Tywin for the 'crimes' that he had done his family.
I wasn't exactly interested in telling him that his family were rebel scum mostly because some of those rebel scum probably didn't have a choice in the matter.
Probably the reason why I procrastinated on making an actual decision of what to do about Ryam.
"Do you think Tywin went too far?" I asked Branda, genuinely curious. From a modern perspective, what Tywin did was horrendous. He would be vilified to hell and back, then back to hell again.
But from a feudal sense and the crap sack world that was Westeros? One could honestly say he was justified in doing the shit that he did. The Reynes and the Tarbecks had overstepped themselves more than any other lord would have allowed and thus got their just desserts.
And me being here long enough made it easy for me to understand that line of thought. I just felt sorry for the third parties that weren't involved in that particular families stupidity. In other words, the castle staff such as servants and the likes.
I felt more pity for them than the Reynes. Like I said, they got what was coming to them, I just would have liked to think that Tywin would have been a bit more considerate.
But then again, this was Tywin 'Order the rape of a teenage girl to teach your dwarf son a lesson' Lannister here. I doubt he was considerate of silly little things such as the lives of mere servants. I don't even think they came to mind at all.
My wife was busy playing with my hair whilst my head rested on her lap. I hoped she wasn't braiding it. "There's this old crumbling castle in the north called the Wolf's Den. It serves no purpose now other than that of a prison." I slowly nodded my head, trying my best not to hamper whatever it is that she is doing with my hair. She continued speaking. "Once upon a time, the Wolf's Den happened to be the seat of a cadet branch of House Stark."
"Like the Karstarks?" I asked, impulsively.
I think I saw some surprise in her eyes from my question, but she nodded her head nonetheless. "Yes. Like the Karstarks, although it's a question for the maesters to know which house is older, the Karstarks or the Greystarks." She shook her head for a slight moment. "But back to the story, the Wolf's Den was home to the Greystarks, distant kin of mine own. We lived happily enough amongst each other for five centuries, before they rose up in rebellion along with House Bolton."
She stopped and I could feel her gaze upon me. I shifted my eyes to glance up at her and found her own grey-slightly-blue eyes locking onto mine. "The Stark in Winterfell at the time presumed to destroy the branch. There is nothing left of them anymore." She then went back to playing with my hair with a slight shrug of the shoulder. "Although it's unclear as to how the Stark 'destroyed' the Greystarks. He could have done what Tywin did, rip the tree, both root and stem. Or he could have shown mercy and sent the men to the wall and the women married off to loyal lordlings or sent to the silent sisters."
I was quiet for a moment before asking a question. "Has anyone made a claim to the Wolf's Den then? Through blood or other means?"
"Not to my knowledge that I know off."
I grimaced. Then by the sounds of it, the Greystarks had met the same fate as the Reynes. Or maybe not, she did say they could have been sent to the silent sisters. That seemed just as likely and more of a safe bet than marrying them off to someone who could make a claim to the castle.
But weren't the silent sisters a Faith thing? How did that work with the old gods?
"Funny that House Bolton is still around then, considering what the Stark did to his distant kin. Don't the Boltons regularly rebel?" And I'm sure I read somewhere that they also, occasionally, make coats or something out of Stark skin.
Why would they keep them around for such a thing?
I think I felt Branda's finger tighten around my hair before she relaxed some more. "The Boltons...are probably the second most powerful house in the north. The Manderlys more than likely compete with them for that position."
"How does that explain why they are still around?"
"Because fighting a prolonged rebellion against the Boltons would have be more disastrous for both sides than good. Don't get me wrong, we would have won at the end of it. It's just that the Boltons also happened to have been smart enough to bend the knee first when they realized that that rebellion was not going to work as they thought it would. That, and the fact they made sure to marry themselves into as many other prominent houses as they could. Allies like that can do a whole load of good."
So the Reynes had done goofed up because they didn't make any strategic marriages? They didn't have other people like the Tarbecks to back them up or make a case for them in terms of leniency?
Now that I think about it, considering their entire attitude, I wouldn't be surprised if they had alienated most of their fellow westermen.
"Never knew I was marrying into a family of hard-asses."
"Every house, small or large, has the blood of innocents on their hands Aerys." She said, scoffing. "Many houses have ended the lines of other houses through one way or another. Don't forget, House Targaryen also ended the line of House Hoare. We all have blood on our hands Aerys, some more than others, but blood nonetheless."
"I know that. My problem is, I care too much."
She laughed then. Not like the sort of laugh you would hear from a lady of high standing, but a full, blown out laugh like she had just heard the world's funniest joke.
She wiped away a tear, her eyes glistening. "Aerys, you are many things. A caring man is something you are most certainly not. You might tell yourself that, but you really are not." She planted a kiss on my forehead, probably as something of an apology at the look of annoyance on my face. "But that doesn't stop you from trying. That's good. Most people who don't care, just never try, at the very least, you try."
"I suppose, at the end of the day, that is all that matters."
xXx
Eventually, I manned up and decided to face my squire who had been recently made an orphan. Now considering that he had done something stupid earlier on when I had told him the news, I had to send him to his room without dinner.
And to stop him from doing any more stupid things, I made sure that he had been tied to his bed post with Harry keeping a watch on him. By the looks of things, he didn't seem happy about his current status.
He tugged roughly at the rope that kept him within his chambers. "Release me!"
"Ryam!" Harry let out in aghast, before his tone of voice took on a more chiding note. "That's not how you speak to royalty. Show some respect."
Ryam's glare turned from me towards Harry and credit to him, Harry didn't back down from the glare as he didn't yield from the stare down.
"I'll show some respect when he stops treating me like some kind of dog!" He tugged again the rope, this time, with enough force to make the bed move slightly. That was pretty impressive. "Let me go, I have to go avenge my family!"
I sighed as I shook my head. "Ryam, that's a one way trip. You'll die."
"As long as I kill Tywin, it matters not."
Well, that was fine and everything, but I really couldn't allow such a thing. I glanced over at my other squire. "Harry, leave us alone for a moment, would you?"
Harry looked at me for a moment before his eyes turned towards Ryam before nodding his head and making for the exit. When I heard the door softly close shut, I returned my attention back to this particular lion in front of me.
"How do you plan on killing Tywin exactly? He has thousands of men under his command. His an accomplished knight. No matter how I look at it, you will just end blindly marching to your death."
"It doesn't matter!" Ryam snarled, eyes glistening with tears threatening to fall. "He killed my family! Father, Mother, Robert, Jeyne..." He started sobbing then and I realised this was nothing more than a twelve year old kid who had lost everyone dear to him. The Reynes were cunts, but they were still his family. "I have to do something..."
Oh great. How do I handle this situation then?
I rubbed at the side of my head in thought. "Why don't you try living then?" I suggested as a different course of action other than going out and getting himself killed first chance he got.
Using a hand, Ryam quickly wiped away at the tears that had been falling out of his eyes. "As if I have that choice now." He sniffed before eyeing me with suspicion and accusatory eyes. "I suppose you are keeping me here for Tywin to finish the task he had started? I would have thought you more honourable than that. At the very least, give me a sword so I can die with steel in my hand."
Was he forgetting that Tywin was a knight and a probably a more capable swordsman than him? And why was he so sure that Tywin would face him in combat?
If it was me, I would just shoot him with a crossbow, safe out of his range, and be done with it.
"I'm not offering you to Tywin." I told him as I pulled up a chair and took a seat. "You are my squire. Don't forget that. If I offered you to Tywin, that would look rather bad for me. Which also means you going on a suicide mission to kill someone would still somehow impact me and I don't want that."
"So what then? What do you intend to do with me?"
"Believe it or not, I have a thing against killing children. And that's what you are, a child. Tywin might be my friend." I was very much debating that at the moment. I liked to think whatever friendship that had been fostered between me and him was borne of Aerys and me being smart enough to keep Tywin close. "But me handing you over to him would mean that I also have responsibility in your not so surprising death. In other words, I'm going to be keeping you until you are not a child and at the very least, can look after yourself. Although I do have some words of suggestion though."
"Like what?"
I began to list of my suggestions. "Probably best that you learn to cook your own food. Buy or hunt your own ingredients. Never go walking alone at night or be alone ever. Don't go hunting. Quite a few people die from hunting 'accidents' every year and you probably don't want to be one of those. Keep Harry as close as possible, cause I think he's the only friend that you have and friends are going to be a very rare commodity for you, especially ones that you can trust. Maybe, just maybe, if you do all that, you might very well survive your teenage years."
"I'm not scared of dying. Tywin should be scared of me. I'm going to kill him. Him and every Lannister."
I rolled my eyes. If it was me, I would place the blame on Tywin alone, but families here tended to band together when someone does them a great injustice or wrong or something. So I suppose killing every Lannister was smart on Ryam's part. If he kills Tywin, Kevan or Tygett might very well decide to come after him in revenge to avenge Tywin.
Didn't they have a sister?
"Yeah, well, there's a load of Lannisters. Quite a few. Certainly more than any Reynes now." I stopped and looked at Ryam who was giving me the evils. "...Too early?"
Ryam huffed as he turned away from me to look through the window. "What do you gain from helping me? I don't believe it's simply because you think it's your duty just because you are my master. You can easily sent me off to the wall and not have to worry about your standing and honour being questioned."
"I told you, you are a child and sending you to the wall might as well be a death sentence. I would genuinely be surprised if you lasted more than a month."
Tywin would probably sent a cat's paw to join the Night's Watch with a massive incentive of some kind to kill Ryam. He would then either find a way to spirit said cat's paw, if he's not caught, away from the wall to wherever or it might be a one way trip with the incentive being said cat's paws family get a nice healthy amount of gold to live from.
The same could be said about everything else. The Faith and the maesters.
"Even if you do this, I'm not going to thank you."
"I'm not looking for your thanks." I rose from my seat. "Until you calm down, you are going to be stuck in here with Harry. Ser Gwayne will also keep a look out for you. And I'll have a food tester check your food. And I'm doing all this, because I care."
"Until I'm a man grown."
I smiled. "Now you are getting it."
Leaving Ryam's current prison, I ran into Harry. Not going to lie, with the way the kid was looking at me with those big eyes of his, I was sure he was trying the whole puppy dog look thing.
Fortunately, things like that never seemed to affect me in any meaningful manner.
"Is Ryam going to be okay?" He asked and I was vindicated in the thought that I had been correct in assessing Harry as the closest thing Ryam had to a friend.
"Worried about him?" I asked.
He shrugged, looking down to the floor. "I know he's a bit difficult sometimes, but he's alright...sometimes." Well, that was probably an opinion that was shared by himself and only him. "Things aren't going to be easy for him, are they?"
I shook my head. "Sadly, no."
"Is he going to die?" He asked with all the eleven year old knowledge he could muster.
I sighed. How do I tell a kid that his best friend was a dead man? Maybe not now, but definitely in the future.
"We are all going to die someday, Harry. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, the Stranger will be knocking on your door and there's really nothing we can do about it. Sometimes, it's just our time."
Harry had asked a genuine question, and here I was, trying to answer by being philosophical as fuck. I could have given him a straight answer, but I didn't have the heart to tell him Ryam was now definitely one of the most screwed people in the entirety of the world.
That, even with the protection his status as my squire afforded him, he had a massive blinking target written right on his back and anyone with the balls or the desperation to gain Tywin's favour wouldn't care about his status and make a go for him either way.
"In all honesty Harry, Ryam's fucked."
And unfortunately for him, I doubted lube was a thing in Westeros.
xXx
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